This book intends to further understanding of the nature of the Israeli-Iranian, U.S. diplomatic relationship to help dispel Western ignorance of the Iranian perspective, which, according to the author, has "significantly impaired the analysis of Iran in the West" (p.xiv). The book focuses on the period from the 1948 establishment of Israel to 2007, and is based on over 130 personal interviews of U.S., Israeli, and Iranian officials and analysts. It organizes the history of Israel's interactions with Iran into three parts. The first section looks at the beginning of the US-Israeli-Iran triangle in the backdrop of the Cold War, following formation of the Israeli-Iranian alliance and Iran’s double policy towards Israel throughout the 1970s and 1980s. The second part examines how the collapse of the Soviet Union and the 1991 Gulf War affected relations between the U.S., Israel, and Iran – pushing Iran away from Israel and causing the two to try and undermine U.S. efforts to help the other nation. The final portion looks at potential options the U.S. President George W. Bush Administration could have exercised to assuage Israeli-Iranian tensions and lower the risk of the two inciting a war that could sweep the Middle East. Appendices include Iran’s May 2003 negotiation proposal to the United States, the U.S. draft negotiation proposal, and a letter from Switzerland Ambassador Tim Guldimann to the U.S. State Department. The author won a U.S. Council on Foreign Relations award in 2008 for the book, which was voted most significant foreign policy book.